Tuesday, July 19, 2011

We here at Waylon Recordings are thrilled with the response to CRONE, the first solo project from ISIS bass player Jeff Caxide. Packaged in a gatefold-style DVD case, Endless Midnight features stunning artwork and design by Aaron Turner (ISIS) and Faith Coloccia-Turner (Mammifer), as well as musical contributions by ISIS drummer Aaron Harris, multi-instrumentalist Cliff Meyer (Red Sparowes, ISIS) and guitarist John LaMacchia (Candiria).

Endless Midnight is available in both physical and digital formats at all the usual suspects (Amazon, emusic, iTunes, Newbury Comics) as well as from the Waylon Recordings store.

Read (and watch!) some great reviews of Endless Midnighthere, here, here, and here.

A huge thanks to Brooklyn Vegan, Noisecreep and the aforementioned websites for reviewing our records. And an extra special thanks to all of you that purchased Crone Endless Midnight legally. Your support means everything.

None of us are privy to the film screening inside Jeff Caxide's head, but we certainly have an idea of what that picture sounds like thanks to Endless Midnight, the debut album from CRONE. Yet it’d be lazy of me to describe the first post-ISIS project by the bass player as merely a soundtrack searching for a movie. Sure, Endless Midnight is cinematic, bleak as a Blade Runner soundstage and noir as a moonlit Mulholland Drive, but the record inspires imagery and more so—a state of mind—than it references the work of other composers. First to acknowledge the influence of filmmakers Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky, Caxide makes it clear CRONE’s intentions were never to mimic. “I was worried about emulating the music from some of my favorite films and had quite a few false starts,” he told me, “but eventually fell into a rhythm where I was thinking about mood and atmosphere and not technique.”

Surprisingly, Caxide’s new project draws inspiration not just from inimitable auteurs but literature as well, particularly the work of reclusive horror scribe Thomas Ligotti. “I wanted to bring to life the cerebral sense of dread and unease that are in his stories,” he explained. Indeed, a sense of melancholy and detachment pervades Endless Midnight, the music at times lush and majestic, elsewhere sparse and despairing…shifts in tone that often occur within a single track and call to mind the strongest (and strangest) qualities of Ligotti’s fiction. Although his love of soundscapes was partially explored by ISIS in interludes and segues, Caxide can trace the fascination to childhood. “As long as I can remember I’ve loved ambient sounds,” Jeff recalled. “I’ve slept with a fan on since I was a boy, and distinctly remember this big humidifier just outside my bedroom, the loud humming it made. It accompanied whatever I did, and even had a presence in my dreams.”

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As creatively satisfying as Endless Midnight proved to be, the album didn’t come to fruition without its share of challenges. Working from a foundation of bass and keyboards, Caxide wrote CRONE material while simultaneously learning new recording techniques—two processes that weren’t always compatible with one another. And despite contributions from Candiria guitar player John LaMacchia, ISIS drummer Aaron Harris and multi-instrumentalist Cliff Meyer, the reality of a “solo” effort became a surprising source of frustration. “I’ve never been in a situation when I didn’t have people to bounce ideas off of,” Caxide admitted. “And that was more difficult to adjust to than I originally expected.”

Gaining confidence as a writer was complimented coincidentally by Jeff’s current home of Los Angeles. “I often took demos with me on hour-long hikes and nighttime drives. Usually it was during these moments when I discovered where certain songs needed to go.” It’s the artist as tactician, and much like a novelist plotting a book during a fit of insomnia or a director blocking a scene on the back of a cocktail napkin, CRONE is the result of many sleepless nights, eyestrain and bad posture, along with a healthy dose of what down south they call “mulling time.”

The results speak for themselves.

From graffiti-tagged neighborhoods to breathtaking canyon vistas, the perpetual thrum of a helicopter, sirens, street walkers, warm summer twilights and low-hanging smog, CRONE was shaped as much by Caxide’s affinities for fiction and film as it was the city of the project’s conception. But no matter where you might find yourself, Endless Midnight is above all else the perfect sonic companion to that “magic hour” loved by a Hollywood camera…and the darkness that follows.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Waylon Recordings is proud to announce the much-anticipated release of Jeff Caxide's CRONE. Endless Midnight was recorded at Gordon Cole Studios in Los Angeles, CA and Rising Pulse Studios in Brooklyn, NY. The album was mixed by Aaron Harris at Vista Studios in Los Angeles, mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher) and features musical contributions from Aaron Harris (ISIS), Bryant Clifford Meyer (ISIS, Red Sparowes) and John LaMacchia (Candiria), as well as photo and design work by Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) and Faith Coloccia (Mammifer).

Endless Midnight will be available July 19th. Jeff will be debuting a track this Monday on the Children of Saturn radio show starting at 6 p.m. (PST)

To listen, go here: http://www.radio23.org/ccr/

Keep an eye on this site in the coming weeks as we premiere a track from Endless Midnight, launch the official CRONE Facebook page and offer an exclusive interview with Jeff Caxide.

I don't know what might be in the water in Montgomery County, but I can guess it's probably filthy, raw and crippling. Gospel of Pestilence is black metal at its most primal, heavier than a public beheading and written with an ear for atmosphere and crushing riffage. I'll paint you a picture: Imagine the sound of everything you hold dear in life burning in a pit. Fans of Enslaved, Acheron and Aura Noir should especially take notice.

Bringers of Disease will be playing 2 record release shows this weekend for you lucky Buckeyes. Go see 'em. You won't regret it.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Waylon here, just letting the waves of TFD-related news wash over me. Our favorite grind-punk-metal sociopaths have launched their official website and announced shows supporting the Waylon Recordings release of HATER.

"The official website of Total Fucking Destruction is launched incelebration of the new album "Hater", arriving February 15th 2011in the U.S. on Waylon Recordings/Translation Loss Records...."Hater" is out now in Europe on Bones Brigade Records and comingsoon to Japan on Ritual Records!Upcoming shows for 2011 are being announced, starting with a show with Phobia in Brooklyn, the March Metal Massacre inNorthampton, PA on March 12th, and an appearance at France'sHellfest 2011... Hell yea!!More info, show announcements, and other totally fucking awesomestuff coming soon!"

Monday, February 14, 2011

Waylon Recordings is absolutely thrilled to announce what surely will be one of our most compelling releases of 2011. Jeff Caxide, bass player for post-metal legends ISIS, has graced us with the first long player from his brand new musical project: CRONE.

Endless Midnightspans five tracks of haunting, lush compositions that remind this writer of the singular sense of mood conjured on Aphex Twin's landmark Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Imagine Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven conceived as a nightmare. The darkness of a DMT trip. The sense of dread and wonder that only the best science fiction cinema can provoke...

CRONE represents Caxide's foray into ambient soundscapes, a project months in the making that was partly inspired by more than a decade performing around the world. Featuring contributions from a few old friends and drawing influence from fiction and film as much as sonic luminaries Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, Endless Midnightis certain to soundtrack your life at its most listless and melancholic.